What are your thoughts on annihilationism? Is it biblical?
As a conditionalist (I believe in the conditional immortality of the soul; that one will only be raised to be immortal and again die if he/she believes in Jesus Christ, and I reject the inherent immortality of the soul, as the Bible simply gives no concrete words indicating as such, and yet we have Ezekiel 18:20 right there in plain English telling us that the soul is subject to death - it would make no sense in any context to use this kind of wording if the soul in reality is inherently immortal and can't actually die, which is what eternal torment proponents expect us to believe) Christian, yes, I believe it has far more Biblical proof in plain wording than the teaching or eternal torment does.
There are plenty of fellow annihilationists (as the OP refers to them, although I prefer the term conditionalist as it gets more to the point that we do not believe men were created inherently immortal) who I have seen be far more persistent in arguing for the pro-annihilationist viewpoint than I am willing to be after having exhausted myself mentally and emotionally doing so at CF my first two or three years here, so I will let them go more into detail if they are willing to when they see this thread. Thus, I will leave my only foremost Scriptural argument (forget trying to do logical or emotional arguments anymore) here for you to look over if you wish to pursue the subject, 9Rock, on why I believe conditional immortality (annihilationism) is correct, or at least has way more Biblical proof than inherent immortality (eternal torment):
Matthew 10:28 - And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
I just don't know why, if eternal torment is true, that Jesus would ever use a term like "destroy" in reference to the human soul if in reality He means to actually do much worse to the souls of unbelievers in hell (i.e. eternally torture them, mentally and/or physically). I really don't think it gets much plainer than this to point to annihilation/non-existence/literal 2nd death in Scripture, and away from the traditional teaching of immortal souls living forever in hell just like those in God's eternal kingdom (albeit in torment instead of bliss). Especially when Matthew 10:28 is far, far from the only verse or passage in Scripture than uses obvious terms like destroy, destruction, perish, burn
up, etc. when referring to the fate of unbelievers and/or the wicked in some way. There's just no rational way I can glean eternal conscious suffering out of such terms. This is also in conjunction with the fact that the only time Scripture uses words very close to "eternal torment" is in Revelation 20, where it says that Satan will be "tormented forever and ever" when he is thrown into the lake of fire along with the beast and the false prophet. ... Notice humans or human souls are not mentioned at that point - only Satan, the beast, and the false prophet - which would have been the perfect time to do so if eternal torment were true, not to mention that of all books in the bible to take at face value, why Revelation, the one known for symbolism, metaphors, and apocalyptic imagery? Even if you could make an argument for taking the words of Revelation at 100% literal face value, this only strengthens the case for annihilationism and against eternal torment in my opinion, as when Revelation does get around to mentioning humans later on as they are going to the lake of fire, it is referred to as their second
death. Nope, not "spiritual death", eternal torment proponents, ... just death. There's no good reason for me to take that as meaning that humans live forever - the exact opposite of death - in the lake of fire. None.
Oh, there's
plenty of other verses we have constantly tossed back and forth for proving annihilation or ECT over the years at CF, but like I said above, I've been around the block too many times on that already and it is exhausting, so I'll let fellow conditionalists take that from here if they wish to debate or explain their side in this thread.
If by chance you want to look into the subject further and see my input specifically,
@9Rock9, just do a search on here for all posts by SarahsKnight with the terms "conditional immortality" or "annihilationism" in them, and I'm sure you'll see one or two hundred posts arguing for conditional immortality/annihilationism in several different ways.